Mooring buoy

ABSTRACT

A mooring buoy wherein a horizontal pivot which is mounted in the center of an upright cylindrical buoyant body supports a freely pivotable carrier for one or more mooring hooks and is connected to the bottom by one or more chains. The carrier normally assumes an angular position in which the hook or hooks are located at the general level of the upper side of the swimming body to facilitate attachment of hawsers. The carrier is held in such position by one or more counterweights and/or by one or more floats which can form integral parts of the carrier.

United States Patent Renz et a1.

[ 1 June 13, 1972 i 1 MOORING BUOY [72] Inventors: Eberhard Renz;Siegfried Voss; Gunter Ecke, all of Bremerhaven, Germany 2 1) App]. No.:36,089

[51] Int. Cl. B6311 21/52, B63b 21/04 [58] Field of Search ..9/8;114/230 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Bolton ..1 14/2303,307,514 3/1967 Young ..1 14/230 3,193,318 7/1965 Guerrant .114/2302,771,617 11/1956 Bracky ..l14/230 3,196,824 7/1965 Howard ..114/230Primary Examiner-Milton Buchler Assistant l-Lvaminer-Gregory W. O'ConnorAttorney-Michael S. Striker 1 5 ABSTRACT A mooring buoy wherein ahorizontal pivot which is mounted in the center of an uprightcylindrical buoyant body supports a freely pivotable carrier for one ormore mooring hooks and is connected to the bottom by one or more chains.The carrier normally assumes an angular position in which the hook orhooks are located at the general level of the upper side of the swimmingbody to facilitate attachment of hawsers. The carrier is held in suchposition by one or more counterweights and/or by one or more floatswhich can form integral parts of the carrier.

10 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJUN 13 I972 3, 668.725

saw 2 or 3 INVENTORS EBERHARD xE/vz SIEGFE/EO voss BY GUIW'ER 5c 5ATTORNEY PATENTEDJUN 13 m2 3, 668 725 sum 3 or a FIG. 8

INVENTORS EBERHARD nan/z aga e/E0 voss GUNTER EC/(E ATTORNEY Mooamcsuov7 BACKGROUND OF rm; INVENTION The present invention relates toimprovements in mooring buoys.

A mooring buoy comprises a buoyant body which swims in water and issecured to the bottom byone or more chains or the like. The buoyant bodysupports one or more mooring hooks which can be connected with hawsersorlike flexible elements for towing, mooring orsectu'ing a vessel inopen waters, during warping and/or during docking. It is alreadyknown'to provide a substantially cylindricalbuoyant body with ahorizontal pivot and with a recess provided inits top wall and servingto accommodates mooring hook. A pull rod which supports the hook isturnable on the pivot, and this pivot is further connected to themooring rope or chain which is anchored in the sea bottom. A drawback ofsuch buoys is that the mooring hook tends by gravity to enter the recessinthe top wall of the cylindrical body so that it must be lifted inorder-to connect it with a hawser or the like. Moreover, the normal(concealed) position of the hook cannot be determined in advance and thehook cannot be automatically disconnected from-the hawser,especially ifthe latter is under tension and makes a small angle with the watersurface. Furthermore, the tensioned hawser tends to tilt the buoyantbody and thus endangers the persons on the buoy. i

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION an object of the invention is to provide a.mooring buoy wherein the hook or hooks automatically assume and remainin an optimum position for attachment of hawsers.

Another object of the invention is to provide a mooring buoy wherein thehooks are mounted in such a way that a tensioned hawser cannot tilt orupset the buoyant body, even if the hawser makes a very small angle withthe water surface.

A further object of the invention is to provide a mooring buoy whereinthe hook or hooks can be readily disconnected from tensioned hawsers byremotely controlled devices.

An additional object of the invention is to provide a mooring buoy whichis safer for the occupants than presently known buoys and wherein theforces applied by a tensioned hawser are directly transmitted to mooringchains or The improved buoy comprises a preferably cylindric buoyantbody which is arranged to float or swim on water and has a preferablyflat horizontal upper side, a substantially horizontal pivot mountedpreferably centrally in the buoyant body, anchoring means for securingthe body to the bottom and including one or more chains or ropes and acoupling member attached to the pivot, at least one carrier freelyturnable on the pivot, a saddle, yoke or an analogous holder meansmounted on and preferably movable relative to the carrier, at least onemooring hook mounted on the holder means and connectable to a hawser,preferably in such a way that the hawser can be disengaged by remotecontrol (such as by a rope or a wireless signal transmitting system),and balancing means for maintaining the carrier in such angular positionthat, when not connected to a tensioned hawser. the hook is readilyaccessible and is preferably located at the general level of the upperside of the buoyant body.

The balancing means may comprise one or more counterweights and/or oneor more floats which can form integral or separable parts of thecarrier.

The novel features which are considered as characteristic of theinvention are set forth in particular in the appended,

claims. The improved mooring buoy itself, however, both as to itsconstruction and its mode of operation, together with addi- .tionalfeatures and advantages thereof, will be best understood upon perusal ofthe following detailed description of certain specific embodiments withreference to the accompanying drawing.

. smsroescarmouorn-la DRAWING FIG. I is aplan viewers mooringbuoy whichembodlesone form of the invention; r

FIG.2isa vertical sectionalviewsubstantiallyssseenin the direction ofarrows from the line li-ll otI-IG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a view ota detail substantially as seen in the direction ofarrows from the line vm-vm err-1o. 1; and

FIG. 9 is a view of a detail as in the direction ofarrow .1): in FIG. 7.DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EM- BODIMENTS Referring first to FIGS. Ito3, there is shown a first mooring buoy which comprises a relativelyshort upright cylindrical buoyant body or container 1 having a top wall2 with a flat upper side and a bottom wall 3-with a flat underside. Thetop wall 2 is provided with a railing 4 open at and enclosing an areawhich can be reached by s iadderlb. A horizontal pivot 5 is installed inthe central portion of the body 1, preferably above the water level WL.v

' The pivot 5 supports a freely 'turnable substantially dish shapedcarrier 6. The normal angular position of the carrier 6 is shown bysolid lines; in such the-upper portion of the carrier supports avpivotably mounted saddle or holder 7 for a mooringhook BLThe holder 7supports or accommo'dates a releasablelocking or retaining device 70 ofany ltnown'dcsign which can be operated by a ropev and/or by otherremote control means, e.g., 'a wireless sender, to release the eye ofahawser ll which is connected to a vessel, not shown. The pivot 5 isfurther connected with a coupling yoke 14 at the upper end of a mooringchain 13 the lower end of which is anchored in the sea bottom.

ln accordance with a feature of the invention, the lower part of thecarrier 6(in its normal position) is provided with or connected to acounterweight 9 which is dimensioned in such a way that the hook bautomatically assumes the solid-line position of FIG. 2 when the hawser11 is disconnected therefrom or when the hawser is not under tension. insuch position, the hook 8 is located at the general level of the upperside of the top wall 2 and is readily accessible for attachment of ahaw'ser. The carrier 6 is turnable ina recess l0 which extends into thetop wall 2 and is flanked'by a portion of the railing 4'. The recess 10isdisposed substantially radially of the body 1, i.e., in a plane whichis normal to the axis of the pivot 5, and extends in part into thecylindrical circumferential wall 23 of the body I. When the hawser 11 isunder tension and pivots the hook 8 to the phantom-line position 8 ofFIG. 2, the hook is fully accommodated in the recess 10 and the tensionof the hawser is transmitted to the pivot 5 and thence to the mooringchain 13 (by way of the yoke I) so that the inclination of the body 1need not change at all. The bottom wallJofthebody I hasaseoondreoesslflawhichcan be coplanar with the recess 10 and accommodates the yoke Iwhen the upper end portion of the mooring chain 13 assumes the inclinedposition 13 shown in FIG. I by phantom lines.

It is clear that the holder 7 can support two or more mooring hookswithout departing from the spirit of our invention.

The buoy of FIGS. 4 to 6 comprises a carrier 106 which is a two-armedlever. One arm of the lever 106 normally extends substantiallyvertically downwardly under the action of a counterweight 109 wherebythe other arm of the lever maintains the holder 7 and hook 8 in thesoliddine positions of FIG. 5; the hook is then located at the generallevel of the upper side of the top wall 2. The lever 106 is furtherprovided with auxiliary arms 12 which nonnally maintain the holder 7 ina horizontal position. All other parts of the buoy shown in FIGS.

4-6 are identical with or analogous to the corresponding parts of thefirst tuoy and are denoted by similar reference characters.

FIGS. 7 to 9 illustrate a third buoy wherein a portion 2060 of thepivotable carrier 206 constitutes a float the lower part of which swimsin or on water and normally maintains the hook 8 in the solid-lineposition of FIG. 8. The dimensions and configuration of the float 206aare such that the hook 8 automatically remains at the general level ofthe top wall 2 when it is disconnected from the hawser 11 as well aswhen the hawser is not under tension. Thus. the buoyancy of the float206a produces a force which is equivalent to that furnished by thecounterweight 9 or 109. The remaining parts of the buoy shown in FIGS.7-9 are identical with or analogous to those shown in FIGS. 1-3 and aredenoted by similar reference characters.

Since the hook 8 is always readily accessible for attachment of thehawser, and since the hawser cannot tilt or upset the body 1, theimproved buoy is safer to the persons on the top wall 2 than heretoforeknown buoys. Moreover, the locking device 7a can be disengaged by remotecontrol in any angular position of the carrier 6, 106 or 206.

it is also within the purview of our invention to provide the buoyantbody 1 with two or more independently pivotable carriers each of whichcan support one, two or more hooks. For example, the recess 10 shown inFIGS. 1 and 2 can be dimensioned in such a way that it can accommodatetwo independently pivotable carriers 6 positioned side-by-side and eachsupporting one or more pivotable holders 7.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist ofthe present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge,readily adapt it for various applications without omitting featureswhich fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic andspecific aspects of our contribution to the art and, therefore, suchadaptations should and are intended to be comprehended within themeaning and range of equivalence of the claims.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent isset forth in the appended claims:

I. A mooring buoy, comprising a buoyant body arranged to float on waterand having an upper side; a substantially horizontal pivot mountedsubstantially centrally in said body;

anchoring means for securing said body to the bottom and including acoupling member directly attached to said pivot for independent movementof said coupling member and said buoyant body about said pivot; at leastone carrier turnably mounted on said pivot; a holder mounted on saidcarrier; at least one mooring hook provided on said holder; andbalancing means connected only to said carrier for maintaining saidcarrier in such angular position that, when not connected to a tensionedhawser or the like, the hook is located at the general level of theupper side of said body.

2. A buoy as defined in claim 1. wherein said body has a recess intowhich said hook extends when the carrier is.

pivoted from said angular position by a hawser acting on said hook.

3. A buoy as defined in claim I, further comprising locking means forseparably connecting said hook with hawsers.

4. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said carrier comprises a leverhaving a first arm articulately connected with said holder and a secondam, said balancing means comprising at least one counterweight on saidsecond arm.

5. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said carrier comprises adisk-shaped member having a first portion supportingly connected withsaid holder and a second portion provided with at least onecounterweight forming part of said balancing means.

6. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said balancing means comprisesa float.

7. A buoy as defined in claim 6, wherein said float forms part of saidcarrier.

8. A buoy as defined in claim I, wherein said holder supports aplurality of mooring hooks.

9. A buoy as defined in claim I, wherein said body is an uprightcylinder and said upper side thereof is substantially flat, saidcylinder having a substantially fiat underside and further including acylindrical wall provided with a radial recess extending into said upperside to accommodate said hook when the latter is connected to atensioned hawser which pivots the carrier from said angular position.

10. A buoy as defined in claim I, wherein said upper side of said bodyis provided with a railing forming an enclosure about said hook.

i l l I.

1. A mooring buoy, comprising a buoyant body arranged to float on waterand having an upper side; a substantially horizontal pivot mountedsubstantially centrally in said body; anchoring means for securing saidbody to the bottom and including a coupling member directly attached tosaid pivot for independent movement of said coupling member and saidbuoyant body about said pivot; at least one carrier turnably mounted onsaid pivot; a holder mounted on said carrier; at least one mooring hookprovided on said holder; and balancing means connected only to saidcarrier for mAintaining said carrier in such angular position that, whennot connected to a tensioned hawser or the like, the hook is located atthe general level of the upper side of said body.
 2. A buoy as definedin claim 1, wherein said body has a recess into which said hook extendswhen the carrier is pivoted from said angular position by a hawseracting on said hook.
 3. A buoy as defined in claim 1, further comprisinglocking means for separably connecting said hook with hawsers.
 4. A buoyas defined in claim 1, wherein said carrier comprises a lever having afirst arm articulately connected with said holder and a second arm, saidbalancing means comprising at least one counterweight on said secondarm.
 5. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said carrier comprises adisk-shaped member having a first portion supportingly connected withsaid holder and a second portion provided with at least onecounterweight forming part of said balancing means.
 6. A buoy as definedin claim 1, wherein said balancing means comprises a float.
 7. A buoy asdefined in claim 6, wherein said float forms part of said carrier.
 8. Abuoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said holder supports a plurality ofmooring hooks.
 9. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said body is anupright cylinder and said upper side thereof is substantially flat, saidcylinder having a substantially flat underside and further including acylindrical wall provided with a radial recess extending into said upperside to accommodate said hook when the latter is connected to atensioned hawser which pivots the carrier from said angular position.10. A buoy as defined in claim 1, wherein said upper side of said bodyis provided with a railing forming an enclosure about said hook.